After canceling his appearance at a morning campaign rally in Orlando President Barack Obama walks toward the White House in a driving rain. / AP

Written by

Nedra Pickler

Associated Press

Hurricane Sandy overran White House politicking Monday, with President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney calling off campaign rallies as the strengthening storm bore down on the East Coast.

With eight days to go before Election Day, Nov. 6, neither candidate could afford to totally shut down operations. The political barbs continued in campaign ads and between aides.

Obama met with federal officials monitoring the storm from a video hook-up and then addressed the country from the White House. He repeated that his administration is ready to help respond to and warned that the consequences could be deadly if people don’t follow instructions.

“The great thing about America is that when we go through tough times like this, we all pull together,” Obama said.

The president turned aside a shouted question about the storm’s impact on the campaign, saying safety was his top priority.

“The election will take care of itself next week,” he said. “Right now, our number one priority is to make sure we are saving lives.”

Romney’s campaign staff debated whether to keep him on the trail away from the storm’s path. But they were mindful of the optics of politicking while millions of people faced grave hardships and canceled events Romney and running mate Paul Ryan had scheduled for Monday night and Tuesday.

“Sandy is another devastating hurricane by all accounts, and a lot of people are going to be facing some real tough times as a result of Sandy’s fury,” Romney said at a stop in Ohio. He also planned to stop in swing state Iowa before standing down.

A brief pause

Obama’s plans to campaign Wednesday in Ohio were still on, though campaign officials said they were evaluating travel plans on an almost hourly basis. The president rushed out of battleground Florida on Monday morning before a planned rally that went on with former President Bill Clinton as his stand-in. Obama also called off Tuesday’s trip to Wisconsin.

Four critical election states are affected by the storm — North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters on the same call that they would start running ads in Pennsylvania to counter a pro-Romney effort in the state. Restore Our Future, a super PAC founded by former Romney aides, planned to spend $2.1 million on television ads criticizing Obama’s economic record to put the state in play. But Messina insisted the state is safely in the president’s column.

“The Romney campaign wants you to think they are expanding the map, but it’s not,” Messina said.

Clinton appeared before voters in Orlando, Fla., in Obama’s absence and did not shy away from hot-button campaign issues, including the economy, education and energy policy, in making a case for the president’s re-election.

Both campaigns used social media to urge supporters to donate to the Red Cross and said they would stop sending fundraising emails on Monday to people living in areas in the storm zone.